Blindsided
by ancient-relic
Summary: A girl wakes up to blackness. A young lord is torn between duty and honour. A curious chain of events begins to unfold as answers are sought after, and the conclusion is something that none of the group could have predicted…
1. I-i

**A/N:** Heeeeelllo everyone! I have a lot of writing that I want to do, a lot of updating on stories that I haven't finished...but this idea has been niggling at my brain for a while now and really, I'm kind of excited about writing it. Aaaaaanyhow...

This story should have approximately 20 chapters, of varying lengths. I've roughly got them all planned out, and the idea is that I won't post anything until I've got more written. That being said, I currently have a chapter and a half in the bank. Do what you will with that information!

And now, onwards-!

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 **Disclaimer:** I do not own InuYasha.

* * *

 **Blindsided**

 **Part I—i**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _noun_ — **blind side**

a direction in which a person has a poor view, typically of approaching danger

.

.

Kagome was lifted from her sleep slowly. She found herself curled up on one side in the fetal position; an unusual one for her, perhaps, but strangely comfortable at the moment. Her shoulder was numb and she could feel her hand tingling, but she felt so overwhelmingly exhausted that she couldn't be bothered to move.

 _InuYasha will be mad if I spend all day in bed, though. I wonder where everyone else is?_

With a groan, she slowly rolled over and tuned into the background noise around her. Everything seemed muted, and she could smell stale herbs.

 _Kaede's hut_.

There was a small fire crackling somewhere behind her, and she could feel a warm breeze on her face blowing past the reed curtains in the doorway.

 _Afternoon?_

Kagome slowly inched herself upright, as her left arm flared to life with pins and needles. She wrung her hands several times in an attempt to coax life into her fingers, and then brought them to her face to wipe the last vestiges of sleep away.

 _But why am I in Kaede's hut?_

With a yawn Kagome blearily opened her eyes, her hands falling still into her lap.

She couldn't see anything.

Kagome screamed.

 **tbc.**


	2. I-ii

**.**

 **Blindsided**

 **Part I—ii**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _noun_ — **blind side**

a direction in which a person has a poor view, typically of approaching danger

.

.

Shippo was the first one to respond.

Kagome heard the patter of his little feet down off the roof above her, and he heard him shout her name. His little hands were cool on her now fevered skin, patting his way up her leg as if to tell her of his position as he hopped towards her.

"Kagome? Kagome, it's okay…it's me, Shippo." he said in a rush, crawling into her lap.

Her face was buried in her hands, and her eyes were clenched tightly shut, but Kagome could feel Shippo's warmth and presence so clearly she could practically see him on the back of her eyelids. An all-encompassing sense of dread gripped her tightly. Her body was tense and taught as a bow string.

"Kagome…" Shippo said again, more softly this time. She felt his little hands come to rest on hers. "It's okay—"

" _No!_ " Kagome yelped, hurriedly grabbing the kit and removing him. "Don't touch me Shippo, something is wrong with me—my eyes aren't working, I can't see anything—"

A shout cut off her rambling and Kagome's eyes flew open as her head jerked upwards. A _thud_ on the roof seemed to echo through her skull, and Kagome's empty stare followed the answering groans of the wood throughout the hut as the figure moved.

 _InuYasha…_ Kagome's heart leapt in her chest.

"It's just InuYasha," Shippo said consolingly, misreading her rigid posture.

"KAGOME!" InuYasha barrelled into the hut. Kagome barely resisted the urge to throw her hands over her ears. Surely that was louder than normal?

"Not so LOUD, InuYasha!" Shippo snapped, his hands patting Kagome comfortingly. "Kagome just woke up."

"Yeah, I heard you runt." InuYasha huffed. Nudging the kit out of the way, he plopped down beside Kagome's pallet and folded his arms and legs.

Kagome's eyes were still clenched tightly shut from InuYasha's entrance, but she was listening intently. She could hear the shuffling of his hakama as he walked, heard the crack in one knee as he crossed his legs. She could practically picture his concerned expression: a gruff face but his eyes tight with concern.

"How are ya, Kagome?" InuYasha was much quieter now. She heard—and then felt—his rough, warm hands reach out to grasp hers, slowly untangling them from where they were knotted in her blankets.

"InuYasha," Kagome's voice cracked, and her eyes burned with tears. "I can't see anything." she whispered. InuYasha squeezed her hands tightly in response, and she felt his claws scrape lightly across her palms.

"I know," he said slowly. "The old hag predicted this. There was an accident."

Kagome stiffened, pulling her hands away. She heard InuYasha shift uncomfortably, his own hands retreating.

"What are you talking about?" Kagome's eyes focused on where she thought his face was. "What happened?"

"Well actually…" InuYasha's voice wavered. "We don't exactly know."

" _What?_ " Kagome felt the hysteria creeping into her voice. Shippo had crawled back into her lap, and her hand rested on his back out of habit, while the other propped herself up. Suddenly she felt weak.

"We were hoping you could tell us when you woke up, Kagome," Shippo piped up. "Don't you remember what happened?

"I—" her voice caught in her throat.

She could practically feel her friends' concerned stares, the tension was so palpable. The heat from InuYasha's body felt like a furnace to her right, even though he wasn't touching her anywhere. She could tell her knee was closest to him. Shippo was more relaxed, but he shifted minutely in her lap, belying his anxiety.

"I can't remember anything." her voice was hoarse. "I can't remember anything, we were just out hunting for shards."

"That was almost two weeks ago," InuYasha grit out, his ears drooping. Kagome could hear his teeth grind.

"Oh god…" Kagome brought her hand up to her face again, rubbing at her eyes. She opened them again, and felt her stomach drop as blackness was all that met her.

"Kagome-chan!" a voice reached her ears, and Kagome turned her head towards the door. Her hand came to rest back on Shippo's back, who patted her again.

"Miroku and Sango?" Kagome's voice wobbled as she asked.

This time, she heard surprise in InuYasha's voice. "You heard that?"

"Well, yeah," Kagome frowned. "Are they okay? And Kirara?"

"Yeah," InuYasha grunted, folding his hands into his haori. "They went looking around the battle site for clues when Kaede told us you'd be asleep for a while."

"How long have I been sleeping?" Kagome listened as she heard the pattering of two sets of footsteps approaching.

"You were unconscious for almost five days when you got here," Shippo said quietly, his voice sad. "We couldn't see you during that time, Kaede was in here looking after you. Since then you've been asleep for six days."

Before Kagome had a chance to respond, her missing companions burst into the hut, out of breath.

"Kagome-chan!"

"Kagome-sama!"

Their voices were loud but not nearly as harsh as InuYasha's was. Kagome could hear them breathing loudly, and she heard Kirara jump down from one of their shoulders and she felt the fire cat's feet on her blankets and she approached, purring.

"How are you?" Sango asked breathlessly, collapsing ungracefully beside InuYasha. Kagome felt her hand on her knee. "Kaede-sama told us you'd fallen into a natural sleep finally, and would be awake soon."

Kagome turned to look at her sister and confidant, and felt her lip wobble. "Oh Sango-chan…"

"She can't see." InuYasha said gruffly.

"So Kaede—" Miroku's staff jangled as he put it down near the entry way, his robes swishing as he moved to sit beside Sango.

"—was right." InuYasha continued. "Said this is almost certainly gonna be permanent." he said to the whole group, although Kagome could feel his eyes on her. His stare was penetrative, seemingly burning into her own.

Kagome's thought process seemed to grind to a stop as InuYasha's words repeated themselves in her mind.

 _Permanent_.

The silence in the hut was loud as Kagome turned her face away from InuYasha. She stared at nothing, unaware if she was looking at one of her friends. A cold numbness, not unlike the ache in her shoulder when she woke up, encompassed her body and drained the emotions from her face.

"I think…" Kagome paused, trying to hold her voice from wavering. "I just want to be alone right now, you guys, if that's okay."

"Kagome-chan…" Sango sounded like she could cry.

"No, I think Kagome-sama is right," Miroku voiced, unusually sombre. "She just needs to get some rest right now."

Shippo's little hands squeezed Kagome's fingers, and then he hopped off her lap. InuYasha wordlessly clambered to his feet, nearly stomping out of the hut. Shippo bounded after him. Kagome listened as Sango pulled herself to her feet, hesitating in the doorway as Miroku followed. The slayer stepped outside, but Miroku paused before following her.

"We're here for you, Kagome-sama. You are not alone." his voice washed over her, a soothing, calm tone seemingly unaffected by the grief of her friends. She appreciated his stolid stance, realizing that he was likely as conflicted as everyone else, but she couldn't continue listening to her friends bemoan her circumstance.

Miroku's steps were far away when Kagome lay back down, rolling back onto her side. She pulled her blanket up to her shoulder, and tucked her hands to her chest. Finally the tears fell, rolling down off the side of her nose and soaking into the pallet with soft _plops_.

She cried for a long time, silent tears falling from unseeing eyes.

 **tbc.**


	3. I-iii

**A/N:** Hey guys! I know it's been a while, but thank you all so much for the love and reviews in the meantime! This chapter is a bit longer so hopefully it hits the spot. And finally, the plot is going to start picking up a bit... Let me know what you think! :)

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 **Part I—iii**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

 _noun_ — **blind side**

a direction in which a person has a poor view, typically of approaching danger

.

.

How many days and nights had passed since she'd been left to her own devices?

Kagome was having trouble keeping track of time. She slept when her body was tired, and she roused only when the gentle elderly miko came to her side, encouraging her to eat to keep her strength up or washing her gently with a cool cloth.

There was still a frightening loss of time in her memory, and Kagome had yet to piece together anything between waking up and shard hunting weeks ago. She knew her friends were worried…she could practically taste their concern in the air when they visited her.

Shippo had taken up residence on Kaede's roof, guarding her day in and out. He came in to check on her the most frequently, although the little fox seemed to understand that Kagome didn't want to talk about it and for the most part left her to herself. She often heard the gentle scribbling of his crayons and paper pad, and Kagome morosely realized that there was little chance she'd ever get to see his drawings again.

InuYasha seemed to stop by every day or so, although Kagome couldn't be sure with her broken sleep cycle. She often sensed the familiar presence of his youki and would get wafts of his musky scent through the reeds that hung in the entryway of the hut. He always lingered outside, as if afraid that if he entered he'd make the situation worse. The inuhanyou was strangely subdued; his normal brash attitude oddly absent. Kagome imagined that guilt was pervading his whole body—from the expression she could picture on his face down to the slump of his shoulders that she could hear in his voice. But why would he be guilty? Although Kagome couldn't remember what had happened to her, something reassured her that it wasn't InuYasha who had caused this.

Sango and Miroku, who seemed to be handling the situation best of the whole group, also seemed to be the most restless and visited the least. It wasn't for several days after their previous visit that Kagome finally pieced together what was going on. Something had roused her from a rather restless slumber, but upon realizing that voices were closer than they'd been for what seemed like weeks, she did her best to keep her breathing slow and even, and feign sleep.

"Keep your voices down," InuYasha muttered, "it's bad enough that we're meetin' in here with her layin' right there."

"She is asleep, InuYasha." Kaede spoke softly and calmly. "As long as ye remain calm, nothing shall disturb her."

"I still say this is a good idea, InuYasha!" Sango's voice was heated, but low. "We don't know enough about what happened, even after Miroku and I investigating!"

"It is true," Miroku continued the slayer's thought. "We have followed every lead to its conclusion, and this is the only other avenue that provides us with any potential enlightenment. What is there to lose?"

" _Keh_." InuYasha scoffed, kicking at the floor of the hut. "Why's it gotta be _him_ though?! That bastard won't lift a finger for us even if we all bat our eyelashes at 'im."

"He will do this for us, InuYasha." Kaede said, a strange note of confidence in her voice. "If ye can get him here, I shall keep him here."

"What's an old lady like you gonna do?" InuYasha's disbelief was evident.

"He shall… hmm. Owe us one." Kaede surmised simply, using a term that Kagome was certain the elder miko had picked up from her own ranting over the years.

"Think of _Kagome_ , InuYasha." Sango pleaded, and Kagome could just picture her doe brown eyes.

"I ain't _ever_ gonna like this." the hanyou huffed, and stormed out of the hut as quietly as Kagome had ever heard him.

Kagome knew that InuYasha was rue to accept help from absolutely anyone, but there was only one figure who came to mind that he so detested… Time would tell, however, if her guess was correct.

"Kagome?" a small, soft voice broke her out of her musings.

Kagome cleared her throat, pretending to stir from her sleep.

"Shippo," she greeted equally as softly. "Where are you?"

"Here," the little kit said, patting her foot gently. His youki brushed against her senses softly, comforting and familiar.

"I was wondering…" the kit continued, his hesitance obvious. "Well, I know humans don't really _groom_ or anything…" he muttered, trailing off.

Kagome listened to every mumble carefully, and she could feel the awkwardness of her youngest friend as he leaned back and forth, shifting his weight from paw to paw.

"Well." Shippo cleared his throat. "You've just been in here a long time by yourself and I wanted to know if you wanted totakeabathwithme." The end of his question came out with a great rush of air, and Kagome almost laughed, it was so cute.

A moment of surprise froze her features as she realized that the little kitsune almost made her laugh. But was she ready to laugh? She'd been so consumed in her grief that something so trivial, something so small as a chuckle seemed like a foreign enemy. Shippo mistook her silence and stony expression for irritation, and quickly continued speaking.

"I mean! It's not like you _stink_ or anything, Kagome, I just thought…" he sniffled a moment, "I just thought you might like to get out of here and do something that would make you feel a bit more like yourself."

Kagome heard the wobble in his voice, and for a painful moment felt overwhelmingly guilty. Even though her friends were so worried about her, they'd taken great pains to give her space. Still, it seemed, they were no closer to solving the mystery of what had happened to her or her vision, but she'd done nothing but shut them out and give them no clues as to how she was coping. For a moment, not being able to see was the last thing she was worried about. She could _see_ the little fox kit sitting near her ankles, his little hands kneading at the blanket in nervousness, and her heart went out to him in apology.

"Shippo," she said softly, opening her arms. The kitsune needed no further encouragement and bounded up into her lap and into the crook of her arms, his fat little tears dripping on her collarbone.

"I'm sorry." was all she could say.

"It's okay, Kagome!" Shippo said bravely, scrubbing at his face. Kagome could feel his little ponytail brushing against her chin. His woodsy scent and the soft fur of his tail was so familiar, so relaxing, that she couldn't help but sign in relief. She hadn't realized she'd _missed_ something like this.

"We just want you to feel better," Shippo said. "You don't have to apologize, not for anything!"

"I just needed to be sad for a while," Kagome allowed. "But I can't just sit here and waste away… you're right. I'm not made to be that kind of person."

"Does that mean you'll wash my tail?" Shippo's pout was audible and Kagome gave him a sweet smile.

"Of course, Shippo. I might need some help to find it, though," she tickled his sides as she spoke, earning a giggle from the boy that felt like wind in her sails.

 _I can do this,_ she thought to herself. _I have my friends… no… my family. I can do this._

"And I guess that was a pretty polite way to tell me that I'm smelly, eh?" she chuckled.

"Hey!" Shippo laughed with her, clambering up to her shoulder and patting her cheek with his tiny hands. "That's not what I said!"

Kagome could feel the heat of his skin so close to hers, and realized that however long she'd been tossing, turning, and moping, she probably _was_ overdue for a bath. She felt her own face warm in embarrassment.

"Okay, Shippo. I'm gonna need my balance to do this so just be careful, please?" Kagome flipped the blankets off her legs and rolled forward. Shippo, a veteran shoulder-rider, was careful not to throw off her movements with his weight.

"I can get down if you want, Kagome." Shippo said quietly, his voice forgiving and apologetic all at once.

"No, it's ok." Kagome said strongly. "This is something that I need to learn how to do."

After several minutes of trial and error, Kagome pulled herself upright using the wall of the hut as an aide. While there was nothing for her to hold, it was a sturdy support and Kagome could almost picture the layout of the hut's interior—there should be nothing between her and the door.

"Now that I think about it though, I will need you to bring my bathing supplies please Shippo?" she realized. "If you can bring me to my bag, I should be able to hoist it up onto my back."

"Sure!" Shippo nodded enthusiastically, and scampered off to bring her bathing kit to her side. The priestess had long ago started putting her various supplies in smaller bags so she wouldn't have to drag her yellow one around all the time.

Shippo brought back a small draw string bag that Kagome knew had a few towels and several soaps and shampoos tucked inside. Grudgingly, she allowed Shippo to direct her arms to the straps as she pulled the bag up onto her back.

"All right. Let's go!" she nodded to herself, pausing as Shippo bounced past her to the door. His youki was vibrant, filling the air between them with his excitement.

"You remember the way, right?!" Shippo waited for Kagome as she slowly exited the hut. She paused, tilting her face towards the sunlight, her brow furrowed in displeasure. Her sight remained dark, despite the obvious daylight.

"Yes but I'm going to have to go slowly, Shippo." Kagome said carefully. "My legs are out of practice and I'm tired already."

"We can just get InuYasha to carry you there, right?" Shippo clapped his hands at his great idea. "Plus, that will be much faster!"

" _No!_ " Kagome snapped. She felt bad as Shippo recoiled at her tone, and tried to push her irritation away. "Sorry, Ship. These are things that I need to learn how to do myself. And I'm not going to get any better at them if someone's just helping me all the time, do you understand?"

"Sorry Kagome." Shippo blinked furiously, wishing the tears away. "I just don't want you to push yourself too hard…"

"I know." Kagome smiled in his direction, hoping the kit was looking at her. Swallowing, she nodded again. "I promise to ask for help if it gets too hard, okay?"

"O-okay…" the kitsune's voice wobbled, but Kagome heard the big inhale that followed and knew he, like her, was fortifying his resolve.

"Lead the way, Shippo!" Kagome smiled at him and pushed off from the side of Kaede's hut.

The ground was strong and familiar beneath her feet, and the sun was warm on her face. She still kept her eyes tightly closed, but somehow that made everything easier. She put one foot in front of another as calmly as she could, following Shippo's directions to avoid dips or obstacles in her path.

 _I guess it's true what they say,_ Kagome thought to herself as they walked. _Your senses do try to make up for it when one of them is missing_.

While she had slept, Kagome had barely dreamed. Everything that was happening around her came to her in fragments, and truth be told she was never certain if it was as a dream, or things that were actually happening as she slept. With little other sensory input, her ears had become the primary focus of her attention as she lay in Kaede's hut, and Kagome quickly noticed that they seemed to be making up for lost time. Her imagination gave her a lot of subsidiary information, but she quickly began to recognize specific sounds like the little _snick_ of the paper when Shippo ripped it from his drawing pad, or the crisp _fssh_ when he opened his box of crayons.

She also seemed to constantly be able to sense the auras of those around her—which right now, was limited to those who were familiar to her. When she found herself drifting off, her consciousness not rooted to anything in particular, she realized that she could sense most, if not all, of the villagers as they moved about their daily business. Now, as they headed through the forest towards the river, Kagome actively reached out with her ki.

"Are you doing okay still Kagome?" Shippo asked, startling Kagome out of her train of thought.

"Y-yeah," Kagome stopped walking, and wiped her face. She'd started to sweat.

"You were glowing just now," the kit said by ways of explanation.

"I was just trying to focus," Kagome allowed, doing her best to keep her surprise out of her voice. _Glowing?_

"I guess your powers are trying to help you out too!" Shippo said cheerfully. "This way, we're almost there! Watch out for the little log that's coming up."

Sure enough, as Kagome awkwardly stepped over the small log that crossed the path to the river, she could hear the gentle trickle of water against rocks. _What a relief,_ she thought to herself. _My legs are ready to give out._

With little care for formalities, Shippo shucked his clothing and had cannonballed into the river with a great whoop. Kagome was significantly more careful, toeing off her shoes last and wrapping her body in one of her towels. As she nudged forwards, she did her best to read the current as it washed over her skin. Carefully following the calmest path into deeper portions of the water, she submerged her body with a grateful sigh. The cool water _was_ a welcome change, Shippo had been right.

As she set about rubbing the grime from her body, she couldn't help the way her thoughts trailed off. Her body felt so on edge, so helpless, it hurt. She had absolute confidence that nothing would happen to her here, so close to InuYasha and the village, but it seemed like every hair on her body was standing on end.

She could feel the gentle breeze drifting own from above as it chilled her shoulders, and she could hear as it rustled the trees around her. The water, cool but not cold, move calmly around her body and Kagome could just imagine its flow as it wrapped around her like an embrace. The pebbles and sand beneath her feet seemed familiar, even if she'd never actually stepped foot in this exact place at the river before, which struck her as odd. All at once, the noises and sensations of the area around her seemed to meld into a cacophonous jumble. A headache bloomed somewhere behind her eyes, and Kagome quickly submerged herself to get away from the sound. Under the water, there was little to hear except the blood steadily pumping through her ears, and the seemingly staccato beat of her heart. Her unintentional inspection of her senses suddenly turned inwards, and Kagome could feel the blood pushing the headache into high gear. Her powers seemed to shift in response to the tweak in her eyes, and curiously Kagome tried to focus on the region of her temple where the headache had started. Sure enough, her ki responded with little fuss and turned itself inward, seeping like a warm soothing balm towards the epicentre of her pain.

Kagome was so focused that she failed to notice the tremors that were rippling across the water's surface until they were right above her head. Little hands reached down to grab her hair, and Kagome felt herself hoisted to the water's surface, breaking her concentration again.

"Kagome!" Shippo laughed. "Are you trying to turn into a fish?!"

Kagome listened for any tell in the kitsune's voice before deciding that he hadn't noticed what she'd been doing underwater. "No," she smiled, wiping her hair out of her face and eyes.

Blinking the water away carefully, she waded back towards where she'd left the soap at the shore, as if she'd left a trail of footprints in the river to follow. She patted the ground a few times before she landed on her bag, right where she'd expected it to be. By the feel of the bottles, Kagome quickly separated the soaps she was looking for and beckoned to the kitsune who was still frolicking in the water.

"Come, let me wash your tail, as promised!" Kagome called, working some shampoo into a lather in her hands.

Sure enough the little fox came bounding over, splashing Kagome along the way. She couldn't help but chuckle in delight—his joy was contagious. Blinking again to clear her eyes, she waited for Shippo to situate himself in front of her so she could soap up his hair.

As her fingers ran lovingly through his fur, Kagome turned him around so she could wash his bangs without getting soap in his eyes. She tussled his soapy hair affectionately for a moment, but her hands froze as the kitsune let out a little gasp.

"Kagome… your eyes!"

"Wh-what?" she stuttered, a cold sense of dread curling in her stomach. At some point, she'd opened them without realizing.

"The blue is gone?" Shippo hopped up onto her knee, placing his hands carefully on her shoulders. "Your eyes are still there, but they're all white now. Maybe even a light purple colour."

"Oh…" unease still left her feeling off balance, but Kagome swallowed it down as best as she could and continued to clean the kit's unruly hair. "It's actually not uncommon when people lose their vision, Shippo."

Kagome paused, trying to find a way to explain. "Sometimes, when the eyes are exposed to certain things that damage them, it can affect them physically. But blindness can be caused in many ways, and how the effects show themselves are always different."

"Maybe that could explain what happened to _your_ eyes then," Shippo suggested wisely, patting Kagome's hand gently as he hopped down to rinse the suds out of his hair and tail.

"Mhmm," Kagome agreed quietly, pulling more shampoo out of the bottle and tending to her own midnight tresses. _A good point, something worth remembering. An external factor, rather than internal damage? But it doesn't account for my time loss…_

Their baths concluded with few other philosophic musings from the kitsune, and Kagome awkwardly dressed with Shippo's assistance before they began the slow and torturous path back to Kaede's. As they walked, Kagome again tried to stretch her senses out around them, to little avail. The ground somehow seemed even more familiar than the river and the bank had, but Kagome knew that without Shippo's careful guidance she would have been hopelessly lost in the trees.

As they approached the village however, Kagome began to carefully pick up the signatures of the villagers, seeing them in her minds eye as they toddled about the village with their day-to-day routines. It left a melancholy feeling in her chest, but she quickly tamped it down as she felt InuYasha's youki approach. Sango and Miroku were not far behind, and judging by their pace, they were both astride Kirara.

"Kagome!" InuYasha's voice was distant, but clearer than she anticipated. Moments later, he skidded to a stop in front of her.

"Where'd ya go?" he was surprised to see her upright, but Kagome could tell by the timbre of his voice that he was pleased to see her.

"We went to freshen up!" Shippo said proudly, and Kagome listened to the light _scuff_ of fabric as Shippo hopped up onto the hanyou's shoulder.

InuYasha patted the boy on his head. "Well done, kid." his tone was gruff, but affectionate.

"Kagome-chan!" Sango called, dismounting Kirara with a hop as the firecat landed several feet away. "It's so good to see you up and about!"

"Indeed, Kagome-sama!" Miroku greeted the priestess, coming to stand beside her friends.

Kagome both heard and felt the brief flash of heat as Kirara shrank in size, and felt the weight of her as she hopped onto her shoulder. "Hi, Kirara," Kagome greeted, raising her hand and letting the cat butt her head against it.

" _Mew._ "

"Hi guys," Kagome greeted, carefully keeping her eyes closed but turning her face towards them with a nod. "I'm finally feeling a bit more like myself."

"That's great!" Sango hugged the younger woman, her relief almost tangible. The slayer stepped back, glancing at her companions. "So listen…"

The woman trailed off, and Kagome understood by the pause that she was hoping either InuYasha or Miroku would finish her statement. But why was she feeling uncomfortable? Kagome debated trying to read her friend's energy when something new tickled the edge of her senses.

" _Keh._ " InuYasha grumbled. "Listen here, Kagome. We were all thinkin' that it might be good to try to get some to help with your new… ah, _circumstance_."

Kagome only paid half attention to her hanyou friend as the signature she noticed was rapidly drawing nearer. The presence was _huge_ , and it was still several miles out. A tingle of familiarity rushed down her spine as she returned her attention to her friends.

"You guys called for _Sesshoumaru?"_


End file.
